"You know how much I used to love Plato. Now I realize he lied. The things of this world are not a reflection of the ideal, but the product of human blood and hard labor. It is we who built the pyramids, hewed the marble for the temples and statues, we who pulled the oars in the galleys and dragged wooden ploughs for their food, while they wrote dialogues and dramas…. we were filthy and died early deaths. They were aesthetic and carried on subtle debates and made art."
Letter from Auschwitz (a young poet to two poet friends) in Tadeusz Borowski "This way for the gas, Ladies and Gentleman"
